Stock markets open moderately higher on Friday, but gains are likely to remain cautious ahead of the release of the most recent U.S. inflation data.

Stock markets open moderately higher on Friday, rebounding from recent losses, but gains are likely to remain cautious ahead of the release of the most recent U.S. inflation data.

Equity markets have had a terrible week, with the broad-based S&P 500 index on Wall Street expected to lose 2.6% and the DAX index in Frankfurt set to lose 1.8%, as investors concerned that tighter monetary conditions will likely lead to a global recession in 2023.

The United States will hold policy-making meetings next week. The Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are both expected to raise interest rates again to combat persistently high inflation.

However, with evidence that inflation may have peaked, the Fed, in particular, may begin to scale down its rate hikes.

With this in mind, the focus on Friday will be firmly on US producer price inflation statistics later in the day for additional signals about the strength of the US economy.

PPI is predicted to have risen 0.2% month on month in November, for an annual growth of 7.2%, down from 8.0% the previous month.

Friday's economic calendar in Europe is mainly empty, with Spanish industrial production forecast to gain 2.8% year on year in October, down from 3.6% growth the previous month.

Furthermore, Crude oil prices rose from one-year lows on Friday as traders sought bargains, but the week is poised to end with severe losses due to concerns that the global economy will enter a recession in 2023.

The closure of the Keystone pipeline between the United States and Canada following a leak in Kansas boosted sentiment, although the supply disruption isn't likely to continue for long.

In other news, Credit Suisse stated late Thursday that it has raised CHF 2.24 billion ($1=CHF0.9333) through a capital raising, in addition to the CHF 1.8 billion raised through an earlier equity placement with a group of institutional investors led by Saudi National Bank.

Finally, Gold gained 0.4%, while the EUR/USD gained 0.3%.

(Sources: investing.com, reuters.com)